Hello Blog Friends!
We have had another rainy week around here, with several sprinklings of snow, a foretaste of what is soon to come.
Early in the week it was necessary to deal with some personal matters, so I’m afraid you might find this a rather short post, which also is lacking in photos. But let’s catch up with news from the world of Day Camps.
Wednesday, I was up extra early, as Sarah, a longtime Day Camps groupie, (now married,with two small children, to another alumnus and working, part-time, as an obstetrics nurse) was coming, after her night shift. Sarah is anxious to start a family tradition of rolling tapers for their Advent wreath and so, after a hearty breakfast of Pumpkin Spice Bread Pudding, yoghurt and St. Petersburg tea, we cleared off the table and had a tutorial, during which she learned the basics of rolling tapers from beeswax sheets.
Once she had headed home to sleep, I got on with several general “office” tasks and then moved on to the world of Day Camps. I had hoped to send out a reminder to a list of people we had first approached, last August, asking if they might be able to contribute one or more short videos to the Carols and Cocoa line up. But so much correspondence had accumulated, that the bulk of the day was taken up replying to a variety of messages and then, that evening, was occupied with our monthly DC committee meeting. Sadly, Mikaela was not able to take part as she had a work-related event to attend and Mae Anne was unwell but we still managed to deal with quite a lot.
Early Thursday,vmy friend, Victor,(husband of Jillian and dad to Amelia and baby Clara) came over and helped to shovel all the fresh compost out of my composter, load it in the wheelbarrow and spread it on some of the flowerbeds, after we had first raked off a ton of leaves. Once back at my laptop, I followed up on various suggestions and requests, generated at the previous evening’s meeting and, by yesterday was back on track although, “where did the week go?”- it was already Friday, AGH!!!
Of course, this afternoon, is Episode #1 of Season 10 of the Cook-Along so I need to be ready, by 2:30pm to log on, as others will want to join to check their cameras etc. This morning was cloudy, so I was able to continue with some leaf clearance. Looking ahead at the coming week, rain and snow flurries are listed in practically every forecast so “cloudy” seemed like good news and I put in a full hour of raking before fitting in the Saturday Bake.
The Cook- Along lasts from 3pm-4pm so I was anxious to process – the ubiquitous GF loaves for my friend, Sue, some autumnal Pumpkin Spice Latté Bars and a batch of Cream Crackers.Now it is about time for a late lunch so let’s close off with our recipe!
Since Wednesday’s breakfast was so tasty, I thought I would share the –
Pumpkin Spice Bread Pudding
- 1 loaf Challah or Brioche, cut into 1” cubes
- 1Tbsp butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin purée (not canned pie filling!)
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 ½ cups whole milk or light cream
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp each, nutmeg, ground cloves & salt
- ½ cup sultanas
Grease the slow cooker insert with the butter. Add the cubes of bread and sprinkle with the sultanas. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin, milk, spices and salt. Whisk well and pour over the bread. Press the bread down with a wide spatula, to make sure the cubes are immersed in the liquid. At this point, you can either cover anbd refrigerate overnight or cook right way, depending on whether you want to serve it for breakfast (with yoghurt) or dessert (with ice cream). Cook on High for 2-2½ hours. Serves 4-6.